Frequently Asked Questions

Observation Preparation

Answer: Yes. The Observing Programmes Committee (OPC) allocates total time = integration time + all standard operational overheads. To estimate your operational overheads, see the individual instrument User's Manuals and/or use the Execution Time Report function in the P2PP tool.

Answer: You should assume that your science OBs will be executed completely independently of each other, possibly on different nights, and take into account that no calibration OB will be executed more than once. You should submit enough special calibration OBs to cover that situation. Example: if you need to observe and flux-calibrate six targets in a filter that is not supported in the calibration plan of the instrument, you need to provide six special calibration OBs to allow for the case in which each target is observed on a different night. This must be done so even if the same calibration star can be used for all the science targets. For assistance, contact the User Support Department (usd-help@eso.org).

Answer: You can relax your constraints to increase the chances of execution of your OBs (for example, if you specified Seeing = 1.0 or better at Phase 1, you can specify Image Quality that corresponds to V band Seeing at zenith of 1.2 or better at Phase 2). However, more stringent constraints (like Image Quality that corresponds to V band Seeing at zenith of 0.8 at Phase 2, in the previous example) are not allowed, as an essential ingredient of the long-term scheduling of Service Mode programmes over the semester is the constraints that users of approved programmes specified at Phase 1. Allowing more stringent constraints at Phase 2 would thus endanger the completion of even the highest ranked programmes. An allowed exception to this are OBs needed to flux-calibrate observations that can be mostly done under non-photometric conditions, provided that accurate flux calibration is needed for the scientific goals of the programme and that the execution time under photometric conditions does not exceed 20% of the allocated time.The values in the OB constraint sets that are selected (and approved) during Phase 2 preparation (and review) cannot be changed later during the observing period. This is explained in more detail in the Phase 2 Service Mode Guidelines web pages.

Answer: Unless you have rebuilt your P2PP installation from scratch, the list of your scheduled runs is not updated every time you start P2PP (note that this applies also if you installed a new version of P2PP but kept the existing local cache; see the P2PP User Manual for details). Thus, when you need to work on new runs using an existing P2PP installation, you need to click on the Download/refresh Observing Runs option under the File menu in P2PP. This will create a folder for each newly approved observing run.

Answer: The P2PP ID and password correspond to the ESO User Portal username and password of the Principal Investigator (PI), or of the Phase 2 Delegate (in case the PI has delegated Phase 2 access to another User Portal registrant). If you as PI of a scheduled run, or as a Phase 2 Delegate, have forgotten your User Portal username and/or password please use the appropriate corresponding link(s) on the User Portal login page.

If you have no accepted programs as PI but wish to learn the use of P2PP, you can use the tutorial account (ID '52052', password 'tutorial') set up for this purpose.

Answer: In principle, no. The reason is that the allocation of time in Service Mode is a complex process in which one of the main ingredients is the pressure factor on each right ascension interval, derived from the distribution in the sky of the targets that the accepted programmes proposed at Phase 1. The Long Term Schedule that results from the time allocation process would thus be invalidated if changes of target were allowed at Phase 2, this is, after the time allocation has been made.

It is however possible to accept a limited number of target change requests in cases for which a sound scientific justification exists, such as the existence of new observations that demonstrate that a given object of the original sample had been misclassified and is not relevant to the purpose of the programme any more. Target change requests are reviewed by ESO to ensure the strength of the justification and also that there is no other approved programme that intends to execute observations of the new target in a similar configuration.

Answer: Use Check-out... in the P2PP main window File menu. This will give you access to the ESO Database Browser, where you can use different selection criteria to display your OBs. Once you have highlighted the relevant OBs, you can check them out by choosing the Check out option in the ESO Database Browser File menu. A more detailed description of this procedure can be found in the webpage dedicated to the OB Resubmission Procedures. For users of the P2PP version 3 tool there is a video tutorial explaining how to check-out individual OBs and OBs within containers. It is important to notice that when OBs are within containers, both check-in and check-out have to be done for the container (i.e. select the container, not its children OBs).

Answer: APEX does not use P2PP, but a web-based form. On the said form you will have to provide your email: please make sure that it is exactly the same as the one present in your ESO User Portal profile. The APEX Phase 2 deadline is the same as the P2PP deadline. Should you have any questions about your Phase 2 preparation, please contact ESO APEX support (apex-garching@eso.org).

Answer: Yes, you should submit only the pre-imaging OBs (i.e. no dummy MOS OBs should be submitted at the general Phase 2 deadline). ESO will make every possible effort to execute all pre-imaging as early as possible, and will release pre-images immediately. In effect all pre-imaging OBs will be treated as ``carry-under OBs'', meaning that they will be executed as soon as they are ready, even if that is before the period starts. For the Phase 2 proposers this means that it is important to submit pre-imaging OBs as soon as possible, even long before the deadline. The earlier valid OBs are submitted, the earlier the pre-images will be taken, and the higher the probability that follow-up MOS observations will be completed within the narrow window of opportunity.

Answer: This is what will happen in practice even when you send an e-mail to usd-help@eso.org. We encourage you to use this e-mail address, rather than the private e-mail of your support astronomer, because user support astronomers have other professional commitments that sometimes cause them to be away and have limited access to email and, especially, to the tools used in ESO operations, which may cause delays in addressing problems. If you send your request to usd-help@eso.org we will ensure that it is always given prompt attention by an expert on the instrument that your run uses, even in periods when your contact scientist cannot deal with it.

Answer: The short answer is nothing, this is normal. The reason is that the error condition that was waived as a result of your request being approved will be ignored by the receiving application in Garching when you check in your OBs. There is no mechanism available to "tell" your P2PP application to similarly ignore the error.

Answer: The UTs have a pointing accuracy of 3 arcsec RMS, driven by the guide star catalogue accuracy. The expected tracking accuracy under nominal wind load is 0.1 arcsec RMS over 30 minutes when field stabilization is active. The UTs also have the capability of tracking targets with additional velocities (e.g. Solar System targets) under full active optics control. Proposers who need this capability should specify the additional velocities in RA and Dec for their targets. Please check here for further details on UTs performances.

Scheduling

Answer: There is no guarantee that user specified conditions will last long enough to complete any given OB sequence. Furthermore, breaking down a sequence of OBs often improves overall operations efficiency by allowing the execution of OBs best matching the external conditions. Therefore, to maintain the flexibility needed to adapt to changing observing conditions and to maximise operations efficiency, ESO requires that all Service Mode OBs be treated as independent observations with independent acquisitions. As long as you have requested enough overhead time at Phase 1, there is no penalty to your run.

Answer: Experience has shown that longer OBs make Service Mode observing less efficient, rather than more. The reason is that, the longer an OB, the more likely it is that the external conditions go outside the acceptable range specified in the Constraint Set. Since OBs executed outside constraints must be rescheduled and re-executed, longer OBs imply not only a higher fraction of OBs to be re-executed, but also a larger amount of time wasted in the execution of OBs failed because of the degradation of external conditions.

Still, some programs require OBs longer than one hour to be scheduled. In such case, a waiver request justifying the need for a longer execution time must be submitted to ESO. When sufficiently justified, these requests are accepted under the condition that the OB will be considered as executed within constraints even if the conditions degrade after the first hour of execution.

Answer:If your programme obtained a Priority Class A and has not been completed by the end of the Period, it will be considered as a candidate for carryover to the next Period without you having to request it. In this case you will get a notification from User Support Department about the possibile carryover at the time the Call for Proposals for the next observing period is issued. This is not possible at present with Priority Class B or C programmes, which are terminated at the end of the Period regardless of their status of completion. Please see our page on the philosophy and scheduling of Service Mode programmes for more information. If you had a Class B or C Programme and you see that the end of the Period is approaching without it being near completion, you are strongly encouraged to resubmit it as a new observing proposal.

Answer: A key feature of the flexible scheduling approach followed at the ESO Observatories is that Service Mode Programmes do not have definite dates assigned to them. Rather, they are executed according to the external observing conditions, some of which are unpredictable, like the sky transparency or the seeing. Only in this way it is possible to ensure that each of the many programmes approved every semester in Service Mode is executed under the conditions that are necessary for its scientific goals.

The Principle Investigators and their Phase 2 and/or data delgate(s) can subscribe to receive e-mail notification whenever one of their OBs has been executed. To subscribe login to the (Garching Night Log Tool) gNLT overview page using your User Portal credentials.

Answer:Yes! ESO selects class C programmes from those that did not get a high enough rating to be above the time allocation cutoff line, but whose constraints made them schedulable under a very wide range of conditions (i.e., in intervals of bad seeing, with moon, or under poor sky transparency conditions). Higher rated runs normally have more stringent constraints and, when the conditions are below average, only class C runs may be executable. Due to the high pressure factor at ESO telescopes, the scientific quality of class C runs is normally still very high, and experience shows that Service Mode class C programmes, which would not have been scheduled in classical Visitor Mode, have produced very valuable scientific results.

Data Distribution

Answer: Nothing. A special data quick-release process is in place and you should be contacted with instructions about how to retrieve your data as soon as they are available, usually the next working day.

Answer: Yes! As of 01 April 2008 Principle Investigators, as well as their collaborators to whom Data Delegtion is assigned in User Portal, can download their proprietary raw data from the Science Archive Facility as soon as the data have been ingested into the archive. For complete details, including important details regarding the proprietary period for the data see the Data Release page.

Answer: Until October 2011 the PI-packs accessible via User Portal account contain raw data, associated calibrations and pipeline products. For observations taken after October 2011 ESO no longer provides PI-packs. The raw data can still be accessed via the archive and the associated calibrations and ancillary files are available for download via CalSelector archive service.
Some instruments however have now Internal Data Products, pipeline reduced science data, released by ESO. For the availability of reduced science data with the ESO pipelines please consult the ESO Science Archive Facility webpages.

Frequently Asked Questions related to VISIR

Answer: For imaging with VISIR, ESO will provide an observation of a standard star as part of the calibration plan. For imaging, this calibrator will be taken within three hours of the science observation at low airmass. This calibrator will be suitable to obtain an accurate zero-point for the photometric calibration. However, it may not have the S/N, or be sufficiently matched in colour and observing conditions to your science observation to be used for more detailed calibration purposes such as deconvolution. If this is a requirement for your programme, you are advised to supply an additional calibrator OB for each science OB. The time required to execute these additional calibrations will be charged to your programme.

Answer: For spectroscopy with VISIR, ESO only provides observations of a telluric standard as part of the standard calibration plan for observations in the low-resolution spectroscopy mode. This telluric standard star will be taken directly preceding or following the science OB and will be taken at an airmass that is close to that of the science target. Please note that for spectroscopy observations in the medium-resolution mode, the high-resolution longslit mode, or the high-resolution cross-dispersed mode, ESO does not provide telluric standard star observations as part of the standard calibration plan. If telluric standards are required, one telluric standard star OB per science OB will have to be prepared and submitted by the user. The time required to execute these calibrator OBs will be charged to your programme.

Answer: A good list of calibrator stars for VISIR can be found here. For imaging, calibrator stars should be between 1 and 10 Jy for observations in the N-band, and brighter than a few Jy for observations in the Q-band. For low-resolution spectroscopy, the calibrators should be brighter than a few Jy and be located as close as possible on the sky to the science target. For medium-and high resolution spectroscopy, the calibrator should be brighter than 10 Jy or so. As the choice of such bright calibrators may be limited, larger differences in airmass between the science target and the telluric standard may have to be accepted.